CAUDA-GALLI GRIT 
17i 
The agricultural characters of this rock are unimportant; and no mineral, excepting a 
jaspery iron ore, has been found in it (See Vanuxem’s Report, pp. 125 - 6).. 
Fig. 29. 
§ 6. Cauda-galli grit (PL xx. Sec. 1, 5, 6), 
A spiral vegetable fossil, which, when flattened, appears like a cock’s tail with its long 
flowing feathers, gave origin to the name of this rock.* It is a dark bluish sandstone 
beneath, with a quantity of argillaceous matter ; and brown above, where this singular 
fossil abounds, though the lower part is not destitute of them, and they are even in some 
places impressed upon the upper surface of the Oriskany sandstone. The rock breaks 
down under the action of the weather : the first change in its integrity consists in tire sepa¬ 
ration of the surface portion into short imperfect columns ; and these continually diminish, 
until they pass into an imperfect gravel. It is thin-bedded throughout the whole rock : 
See Vanuxem’s Report, p. 128. 
22 * 
